Denmark abandons ‘parenting competency’ tests used on Greenlanders

Denmark has scrapped the use of controversial parenting “competency tests”, which many campaigners have spent years arguing discriminate against Greenlandic families.

The psychometric tests, known as “forældrekompetenceundersøgelse” or FKU, are used by Danish authorities in child protection cases.

Campaigners say they do not take into account Greenland’s language or culture, and that this can give false impressions of families and parenting in child protection cases — potentially leading to incorrect placements.

In the past, Danish authorities have responded to these claims by pointing to the range of tools used to assess whether a child should be removed from their parents.

The debate around parenting tests in Denmark became particularly inflamed in November when a mother’s baby was removed from her only hours after she gave birth.

Keira Alexandra Kronvold, a 38-year-old Greenlander who lived in northern Denmark, was made to take a FKU test before the birth of her second child and another while pregnant with her third child.

The test results are believed to be among the reasons why her baby was taken away from her.

Kronvold’s situation triggered angry protests across the Danish capital, as well as in Greenland’s capital city of Nuuk.

In the following weeks, Greenland’s minister for children, Aqqaluaq B. Egede, met with Denmark’s minister of social affairs, Sophie Hæstorp Andersen. At the time, Andersen said she would call on municipalities to stop using the test, but decided not to instate an outright ban.

Andersen has welcomed the news of the FKU tests’ abolition.

“It is my hope that the solution will give Greenlanders in Denmark peace and security back,” she said in a statement.

Hæstorp Andersen pointed out that around 460 children with a Greenlandic background are currently placed outside their homes in Denmark, where around 17,000 Greenlanders live.

Greenland’s minister for children, youth, education, culture, sports and church, Peter P. Olsen, also expressed his approval of the news.

“I am very pleased that the Danish government agrees with Naalakkersuisut [the Greenlandic government] to meet a heartfelt wish from Naalakkersuisut and the Greenlandic population,” he said.

“It has been a long-term process to achieve our goal of stopping the use of psychological tests in parental competence examinations of Greenlandic families in Denmark.”

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According to a 2022 report published by the Danish Institute for Human Rights, 5.6% of children with a Greenlandic background living in Denmark had at the time been placed into care, compared to 1% of those with a Danish background.

A string of controversial claims made by US President Donald Trump about buying or taking over Greenland have helped open up sore wounds between Greenland and Denmark.

Greenland was a Danish colony until 1953, but is now a self-governing territory thanks to a self-rule law passed in 2009.